Oh, yes. Here's a rough background sketch for Zax (I'll write something more formal up when I have time):

Zax enlisted in the Hylian Army at a young age, as soon as they'd take him -- he had to get away from a toxic environment at home, and the Recruiter was very convincing. Displaying remarkable talent and skill, he quickly rose through the ranks, becoming a sergeant. However, during an encounter with an old black dragon, his entire unit got wiped out... and he was the lone survivor.

Zax protested under interrogation and magical truthfulness that he had done all he could, but his superiors still had suspicions. Still, since they couldn't prove anything, they couldn't take much action against him. Instead, Zax was dishonorably discharged and cut loose. Now he's fighting depression and trying to find work, floating around, with a bitter grudge against the Hylian Army and a paticular set of skills.

Rabbit was on route back to a Galactic Federation outpost from a routine scouting and surveying mission. While grumbling about how the GF always gave him the shit jobs while everyone else got the exciting posts, his craft was rocked by a meteor shower. Normally most GF style corvettes can handle a little meteor shower, but this wasn't a little shower.

Rabbit nearly crashed into one of the orbital bodies of a planet not on their normal charts, but managed to use its gravity to slingshot himself... on a collision course for the primary planet. Good thing the Eject unit would deploy... any minute now. Any... Minute... Now...

The craft hit atmo about as hard as you shouldn't, and was probably mistaken for a shooting star. Many a star crossed lover would pledge their love to Rabbit's plummeting cosmo-iron coffin. Impact in thirty.

He never believed in gods, hence he wasn't religious, but he was hoping for a miracle. Impact in fifteen.

The ground sure *looked* soft. Impact in five.

The ground was anything but soft, but it did crumble and buckle under the impact. Oh wait, that was the corvette. The ground just parted and gave way to softer, yielding dirt. Rabbit's cruiser carved a scar in the land as it eventually skidded to a stop... and THAT'S when the Eject unit deployed, firing Rabbit away from the crash site and depositing him away from the wreck.

That promptly exploded. Rabbit checked his vitals, then checked his suit. System after system failed, and auto recovery crashed when calculating the required time for the systems to come back online. Personal sidearm, check. Survival pack from Eject unit, check. Radio...

Radio? Where did you go radio. Oh wait, on the ship. Which was currently liquifying, and on fire.

"Outcome. Dismal. Options. Adapt and survive or self-terminate." Rabbit thought to himself, his methodical thinking letting him overcome most factors like distractions, depression, or overwhelming dread. "Solution. Adapt and Survive."

Even if it's true most of their members don't even carry weapons, a pokemon is much easier to carry past trough checkpoints, and just as deadly in the right hands.

Bolded for emphasis. This is my opinion, but the bolded bit above should never, ever be true. The government would have strict licensing policies for owning and keeping Pokemon, and would keep a very, very close eye on any pokeballs on someone's person at all times. In fact, it would probably be entirely illegal to walk around in public with pokeballs on you except under super specific circumstances. Think about it, you say that a Pokemon is just as deadly as any weapon in the right hands. In fact, a Pokemon can be 100s of times more deadly than an assault rifle or dirty bomb in just about anyone's hands. In the right hands, the right Pokemon can level a city.

I imagine public ownership of Pokemon that have powers more deadly than, say, a handgun would be greatly restricted, and carrying any such Pokemon in a pokeball would almost certainly be strictly forbidden. Permits might exist (in the form of Badges?) that allow private citizens access to more dangerous Pokemon, but again keeping them in pokeballs is the equivalent of allowing concealed nuclear weapons. Remember, in the real world, we go to war against nations that attempt to conceal nuclear programs and we straight up kill individuals with access to nukes without even bringing them to trial.

He didn't say it wasn't illegal or frowned upon, only that it was easier. Especially the collapsing Pokeballs we see later in the movies that are half the size of the conventional pokeball when not in use.

Are pokemon dangerous? Yes. Are there protocols involved in keeping the populace safe from Ash Ketchem, his hardly tame Charizard, and his atomic Pikachu? Most certainly.

Did his statement state that no one checks for these things? Certainly not. It's just easier to carry them past checkpoints.

Did his statement state that no one checks for these things? Certainly not. It's just easier to carry them past checkpoints.

I know that, and I'm simply saying that I don't buy it. Pokemon can be the most dangerous things on the planet. Implying that it's easier to sneak a pokeball past a checkpoint than it is to sneak a handgun just seems really off to me. My point is that any government policed area is going to be using bleeding edge technology and the best operatives to sniff out illegal Pokemon use. They are going to care a lot more about the dangers of hidden Pokemon than they are about guns. I can only imagine it being a lot more difficult to sneak pokeballs through checkpoints than conventional weapons.

In fact, in this setting, it would make a lot more sense if most members of Team Rocket did carry conventional weapons. Basically they are a terrorist group, and they make threats and coordinated raids (albeit with much less regularity) on society using Pokemon instead of dirty bombs or hijacked aircraft. Most of the members will have Pokemon as well, but most of them won't have the powerful, murder-engine Pokemon that can be used to threaten cities and nations. So to supplement their deadliness using stolen munitions is only natural.

For every security system in existence, there will be those looking to foil it. Include the fact that some agencies have access to loads of resources and hyper-genius pokemon, and now things turn into a security arms race, which is kinda what we have in the real world.

And yes, I'm sure the Pokemon World's Pentagon or House of Lords has some of the latest advancements in pokemon detection technology, but Hickville USA or Fringe Town, UK is pretty boned.

Also take into account the fact that the latest and greatest is hard to maintain, and harder to teach folks how to properly maintain? Also if the focus is on "Finding dangerous Pokemon" then an agent with a gun becomes the danger. Unless you have your security forces on maximum alert looking super hard for everything, and well, we all know how well that works out.

Bottom line, it's impossible to make a perfect security system since once you make a better mousetrap, some jerk will inevitably create the better mouse. So all you can hope to do is minimize the threat by doing everything you can.

He didn't say it wasn't illegal or frowned upon, only that it was easier. Especially the collapsing Pokeballs we see later in the movies that are half the size of the conventional pokeball when not in use.

This. Pokeballs have been shown to be able to shrink to a much smaller size than an handgun

Even if it's true most of their members The government would have strict licensing policies for owning and keeping Pokemon, and would keep a very, very close eye on any pokeballs on someone's person at all times. In fact, it would probably be entirely illegal to walk around in public with pokeballs on you except under super specific circumstances. Think about it, you say that a Pokemon is just as deadly as any weapon in the right hands. In fact, a Pokemon can be 100s of times more deadly than an assault rifle or dirty bomb in just about anyone's hands. In the right hands, the right Pokemon can level a city.

Those are however still important points to discuss.-Walking around with pokeballs but not a pokeball license shouldn't indeed be allowed. People need to register any pokemons they own/evolve at the nearest pokemon center and get licenses.

However, you can still walk with dangerous pokemon with you (and actually let them tag you behind in the street to show off) because besides guns and pokemons, Earth is also filled with psionics. Sure your Gyarados can wreck the city if you let it loose, but that other guy may do just as bad just by thinking. The Pokemon League fought hard on tribunals to allow their trainers to carry their pokemons with them all the time for "self-defense and that of their neighbours".

-On the other hand, even some smuck lv1 NPC can use an assault rifle or even a prototype laser pistol, but a lv1 trainer can only get the weakest pokemon to obey it. City-leveling pokemons like a Gyarados can only be controled by an highly skilled trainer, and you'll have a considerable hard time to reach that kind of status whitout your face being well known by most people in the world.

I imagine public ownership of Pokemon that have powers more deadly than, say, a handgun would be greatly restricted, and carrying any such Pokemon in a pokeball would almost certainly be strictly forbidden. Permits might exist (in the form of Badges?) that allow private citizens access to more dangerous Pokemon, but again keeping them in pokeballs is the equivalent of allowing concealed nuclear weapons. Remember, in the real world, we go to war against nations that attempt to conceal nuclear programs and we straight up kill individuals with access to nukes without even bringing them to trial.

Eerr, last time I checked the exact oposite hapened. The USSR got nukes? Cue half a century of stare-down, and Russia still has nukes. Iran and North Korea have concealed programs? Lots of threats, but no actual war (and NK actually gets some freebies in between). China probably isn't also telling us even half of whatever research they're actually doing in nuclear. Meanwhile Lybia leader gave up on their nuclear program a few years ago? Send in the bombers! Iraq never had one? Send a full assault!

Thing is, having nuclear weapons (or equivalents) makes for an impressive deterrement for people to attack you. Threat of mutual anihilation and all that stuff. It's the exact oposite, not having nuclear weapons at all (or a friend with them), that makes you an easy target.

So in this pokemon case the government may've indeed tried to turn dangerous pokemons illegal under strict conditions at some point in history, but in the end dangerous pokemon grow in the wild, Gyms and trainers like to have their own autonomy, and the military was already kinda too busy fighting off actual rampaging wild pokemon to go after trainers that can actually keep their destruction machines in check, if not using them to help save the day. It's a delicate balance yes, but basically trainers get to keep their dangerous pets as long as they don't raise too much ruckus in civil areas. Luckily, most Gym leaders do have morals and police their own area and students (because there's no glory on ruling over a dead wasteland), and again the Elite Four quickly intervenes whenever things get too nasty. It's more like a "bigger fish" policy. You may have a strong pokemon, but if you stand out too much, there's an even stronger pokemon at the next corner, so you want to be friends/neutral with them, not murdering enemies.

Still around, just haven't been on for a few days. Will put up my char sheet ~Tuesday-ish.

Osle, You can go ahead and post what I sent. Anything more you want from me? No promises on timeliness, but I'll work on whatever you'd like for dreamland and whatnot. I have a lot of time to think, just not mush to sit and write.

Also, You haven't written anything else for Kremella yet, and I don't remember seeing anything about Koopa. I'd think he'd have an elite unit of special forces that he sends out on missions. All of whom are bloodstorm blades who specialize in bludgeoning weapons. They would be known as the "Fraternity of the Hammer".